In the meantime, human tofu slice Anthony Brown has a press release re. his domestic violence plan, which involves a network of screening centers* and changing the standard of proof for victims to get a restraining order, and somethingsomething about cell phones. For his part, Doug Gansler, the guy who sent his son to a $33k school that's the source of the local saying "never drink from a cup from a Landon boy" has fired back with some blahblah about cheap political points. And our Bro-torney General may be onto something: as governor Brown won't be in any kind of position to change legal burdens of proof, and "setting up centers" = throwing money at the problem, while training health care providers and officers to assess domestic violence risk would be a lot simpler, cheaper and is backed by evidence that it's effective. Anyway, there's also a lady and some kind of Republicans in the governors' race, but they were apparently too busy blow-drying hair/reading from the Necronomicon to talk to Mike Dresser.

There was a hearing yesterday on the troubled Detention Center; officials say cell phone blocking technology is going to fix stuff, because without cell phones there is no other way for human beings to communicate with one another.

We have another homicide ID, the man killed on the 600 block of Milton 2 days ago is Justin Lee Milton, 32. From looking on the Judiciary he is originally from Hurlock in Talbot County and lived in Northeast Baltimore. He has no previous drug charges. This may be his FB page: http://www.facebook.com/justin.milton.338?ref=ts&fref=ts

At Charles Village Civic Association meeting, where both Police Commissioner Batts and State's Atty Bernstein are visiting ... Director of @CVCBD thinks progress being made w prostitution problem in southern part of district: "I think they're getting annoyed with us" ... Bernstein says in six of the 1st 10 mos of 2012, SAO had conviction rate over 70% while taking 13% more cases over prev yr

The flippin Cold Spring Ro/Fo has been robbed yet again, for at least the 3rd time this year. Where are the pictures? I've heard if >$1,000 is taken police don't even request copies of the tape. ... So out of whose pocket comes the stolen cash? The franchise operator?

BWHAHA! Booze-cruising legislator Don Dwyer blames his turning to the bottle on the gays and other Republicans, reports Rodericks:"I felt a tremendous amount of pressure in my family. You take those personal issues [and] add betrayal on the professional side, and it really gets to be overwhelming." The "betrayal" he felt came when three other delegates, including twoRepublicans, changed their minds and voted for the same-sex marriage bill that became state law on Jan. 1. "That betrayal really affected me," Dwyer said. "I was physically ill. You pour your heart into an issue like that and it's devastating." No Don, that was the DT's.

And thank you Kevin Rector, finally*-- after a slew of confusingrape/ abuctionstories a little clarity: three sex assault/ kidnapping/ robbery victims, two perps -- Kenyon Waller and William Campbell -- who're both now in jail. The first incident of a teen kidnapped at gunpoint off the street then robbed and sexually assaulted was Sept. 25, but as far as I can tell only the Catonsville Patch reported it. Wonder why. I'd throw in a dab of snark here about how if it had happened to a blonde girl in Towson you wouldn't have been able to eat your Cheerios without hearing Don Scott recount every filthy little detail, but my outrage fatigue is acting up.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

So Batts' first move as presumptive commissioner was to hire Judy Pal, right, as his communications pro.* Pal was born in Canada and has held jobs with a bunch of police agencies, as well as with Madison Square Garden and the Labatt Brewery of Ontario. Fenton and LinkedIn report that most of her jobs she stayed in for only about a year (and between the time that I started this post until I finished, the security was changed on her LinkedIn profile-- I saved it from the cache and uploaded screenshots here). According to her bio with the Public Agency Training Council, she has "extensive communications experience dealing with sensitive and
image-threatening issues such as criminal conduct of police officers,
international scandal, fractured community and media relations..." which will no doot come in handy. According to a speaker bio she is also "credited with re-tooling the image of the largest police department in Atlantic Canada." Yesterday Batts was also quietly sworn in as an officer--
the only photo appears to be from somebody's cell phone. He'll officially be be commissioner after the City Council confirms him. Sounds like there's no question that that'll happen, though I think there are some quality reasons to have questions about this guy, eh?